The CataloniaBio & HealthTech board and team wish you all a Happy New Year 2024, and especially to the more than 225 members of the association, its collaborators and healthcare and life sciences professionals.

This is a good time to look back and share the main milestones and the work we have carried out during this year 2023. A year of growth in which we have been able to maintain the meeting points, training, content and boosting the competitiveness of all the actors in the health sector.

Work by areas of interest

We have renewed the internal working committees, made up of members of the associationv: in 2023, the Business Development, Digital and Innovation committees started working.

• In terms of innovation, we have promoted seminars to cover topics of interest such as tax incentives for companies in the health sector or on the tools that health companies have to protect innovation, through patents or trade secret protection. With an eye on Europe, more than 40 people attended the workshop on access to EU funding. In addition, CataloniaBio & HealthTech has made its debut as an AEI participating in 3 projects in the 2023 call, and the innovation committee has been the one to mark the theme of discussion of this year's UnConference.
• The business development committee has also promoted new initiatives. Such as the "GO International" webinars, with the aim of getting to know other ecosystems and markets, which this year have taken us to the United Kingdom, Aquitaine (France) and Canada. We have received 9 delegations of international agents to Catalonia for investment or business alliances, including Singapore, Germany, Colombia, China, Mexico and Canada. In addition to webinars with international investment funds to finance the first stages in the sector and a workshop to provide competitive tools to laboratories through the application of the Lean methodology. In this same area of interest it is included the Lessons Learned session, which focused on the path of pharmaceutical development.
• The experience of the tech tour in the context of the Mobile World Congress was repeated and extended from the digital area. The committee promoted a Lessons Learned session focused on cybersecurity in the field of health and participated in various events, giving visibility to the associated companies. The last one, a round table at Tech Spirit Barcelona on AI.

The big events

More than 350 people attended the CataloniaBio Night 2023 at CaixaForum Barcelona, where Avinent and SpliceBio received the Bioèxit award. And around 500 people gathered at the headquarters of Specipig, in Prat de Llobregat, for the most important event of the summer in the sector, the BBQ.

This 2023 the Connection Day was held for the first time, with a great response from members and the sector: 224 registered participants, 115 institutions and companies, 80 B2B meetings and 40 exhibitors. An excellent start to what aims to being the benchmark event for connections in the health sector. In the context of the Connection Day we presented the Study on investment in the health sector in Catalonia, a document promoted by CataloniaBio & Healthtech, together with EY.

We attended this year's edition of BIOSPAIN under a grouped stand, with the presence of 6 of our member companies. For the first time we were able to bring international visibility to companies in the cluster by acting as an exhibiting organisation.  In addition, in the context of the BIOSPAIN 2023 congress, more than 20 meetings were held between the CataloniaBio & HealthTech team and various national and international entities attending the congress.

The Unconference, this year focused on advanced therapies, brought together more than 120 professionals and has established itself as a benchmark event on the debate on the future of health.

The 2023 Assembly was also extended for the first time, with a complementary forum focused on the new law on startups and how it affects the sector in a concrete way.

Growth, economy and positioning

There are already 30 companies that, in three years and three editions, have completed the BIOMED ScaleUP programme to support corporate growth, thus meeting one of the sector's challenges: the consolidation and scaling up of Catalan healthcare companies.

2023 was the focus of the CEO Council's meetings on economic issues. With around 150 attendees in the 5 editions held this year, we were joined by Antón Costas, Boi Ruiz, Núria Mas, Xavier Prats and Javier Ponce.

We have continued to participate in the debate spaces of the sector and we have been present in the strategic initiatives of city and country, such as for example connected through ACCIÓ with an intercluster conference with Ecuador, in the reception of entities with the President of the Generalitat before attending the BIOBoston or bringing our cases of good practices to Cordoba (Argentina). We have participated and supported the administration in the National Pact for Industry, the Strategic Plan for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer among other spaces and initiatives. We continue in different working groups and committees to defend and promote the interests of our associates, the Department of Health, the Biocat Board of Trustees, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Barcelona Global, CDTI, the Aliança de Clusters Salud España, and the S3 Community of Practice, among others.

In terms of activities alone, in figures, we have organised 29 events in which more than 1900 people have registered. We have also shared more than 160 news of milestones achieved by members, we have more than 39,000 followers on social networks (X and Linkedin) and we have welcomed 36 new members in one year.

2024 awaits us with new challenges and new proposals to continue working to increase the competitiveness of the health sector, and we hope to have the same support and collaboration from all members. If you are not yet a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, contact us and become a member!